My lovely daughter heard about The Wheels Inn in Chatham and decided to ramp up her campaign for a mini-break.

I can’t blame her really. The last couple of years we have stayed pretty close to home in the summer, opting for day trips to the beach and other points of interest. To her credit, she has been very tolerant and undemanding over the last two years with all the upheaval in our lives. My kid is pretty darn amazing, actually.

So, being the dutiful Mom that I try to be, I got online and started checking availability for a weekend we had free. Lo and behold, they had a special on and rooms available. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I booked our room. Further inspection of the site inspired panic…I would have to don a bathing suit, worse yet…I would have to go shopping for a bathing suit. The horror!! Well…it is for a good cause.

So, after pissing and moaning, I gathered my courage and took to the mall. Let me tell you…there is nothing uglier than me shopping…period. After half-heartedly pawing my way through a few racks of truly nasty, old lady bathing suits in a couple of stores, I decided to hit Sears. After all, it couldn’t be worse than what I’d already seen elsewhere. My faith was restored…Sears had a simple, black one piece suit in my size, bonus points for the huge end of season sale too! Feeling somewhat better, I took my very supportive family out for supper.

Before I knew it, my husband was busy making lists of what we needed to pack from almost every room in the house. He wanted to make sure we had a great time without forgetting anything, you really have to admire that kind of forethought. In no time, Friday and our departure was upon us. Loaded up with suitcases, cameras and everything else… we hit the road.

Since check-in was not until 3:00pm, we decided to stop in Thamesville and have lunch with Rose and her kids. As ever, the children were having a blast together, and my husband suddenly got that look. You know, that look…the one that practically shouts “I’ve got an idea!!”. There are times when the ideas from this look are truly horrifying, but luckily today wasn’t one of them. He leaned in close and whispered “Why don’t we take Rose and the kids with us?” My husband had struck solid gold. That was a fabulous idea!! Unfortunately, Rose didn’t agree…because it meant putting on a bathing suit.

Now, if I had to wear a damn bathing suit, I sure as hell was not going to do it alone. I am devious by nature, and I am not above using children to get what I want. I leaned over the table and said “I could always ask the kids, what do you think they’d say?” Poor Rose, she didn’t stand a chance. It was either come somewhat unwillingly or have her children badger her into it with those big brown eyes. Came the grudging response, “I’ll need to get a bathing suit”. It’s hard not to feel just a bit smug by this victory for several reasons. I get to spend time with people that my family and I enjoy greatly, the kids get to play until they fall down and finally, I don’t have to hit the pool alone. This makes me very happy.

I should explain something at this time. My husband owns his own business, I do the books,H/R and payroll for him, and it was at my strong suggestion that Rose be hired. The really lovely thing about how Rose and her kids came into our lives is work is work, and play is play…they don’t meet or touch on each other. Early March we went on a day trip with Rose and her daughter to St. Jacobs, and when I asked Rose if she’d like to come, her response was…”Ooo…Da Bosses wanna take me for a ride…” That set the tone for future outings, lots of laughter. We can have this great friendship and preserve the work dynamic quite nicely. I can’t explain it easily except to say, right people, right place, right time…and I love it!

After Rose got her pissing and moaning out of her system about a bathing suit, we bundled everyone up into the van and headed to Chatham. As luck would have it, with all the turnoffs we missed to get to Wheels, we lucked into not one, but two bathing suits for Rose. I really like it when the universe co-operates.

We found Wheels, got checked in and unloaded. The kids bounced on the beds, the adults had a cup of tea and formulated a plan of attack. There really is so much to do, I think they count on you never using your passes or bracelets to their full extent. We did a walk-through and of course found all the amusements. The kids were priceless, pointing and chattering…”ooo, Look, oOOOooo, GAMES…OOOooo, Go-Karts…can we go here, can we do THAT?” So, system overload for everyone.

Go-Karts were at the top of my list…and wouldn’t you know it, I got the slowest damn one. Regardless, we had fun…I could hear my daughter and Rose’s daughter yelling, “Faster, faaaaster!” Then came the rides…I shudder. I am not a fan of amusement rides. However, since my husband wanted to play with his new camera, I got on to the roller coaster with our daughter. It has been about 20 years since I’ve been on a roller coaster, and despite the small scope of the one that was available, I was still bothered by it. The silver lining to this is my daughter overcame her fear of roller coasters, and by the end of the weekend was riding by herself, throwing her hands into the air and screaming with delighted fear.

Then it happened…”Can we go swimming now?”

We made our way back to the room and changed into our suits. Rose has an awesome body that most women half her age wish they had…and she is only 40. Heck, I wish I had her body, but genetics are against me. Having said that, Rose looked amazing in her bathing suit….and tried really hard to make me feel better about how I looked in mine. We took to the cement pond…kids hooting and laughing all the way.

Why is it that the shower water poolside always cold? This has got to be an unwritten rule somewhere in the public pool ownership manual. Frankly, it makes me nuts. Teeth gritted against the cold water, I rinsed and walked into the pool.

Have you ever noticed the joy that exists in a pool? I marvel every time I get near a lake or pool at the sheer delight children bring to the water. Splashing, laughing, spitting water…all of those lovely things that we outgrow too quickly. What also amazes me is the time warp that exists in a pool. You think you’ll be in for no more than an hour, and suddenly it is three hours later. What drew my attention to the fact that we’d been in for a while was my daughter indicated she was hungry by gnawing on my shoulder. Taking the hint, I located my husband who told me that it was far later than I thought it was. We rounded up everyone, which was much like herding cats…funny and kind of futile. I got a faster response when I asked, “Who’s hungry?” The six of us made our mass exodus from the pool area and back to the room to change once again.

On the way back, Rose was wondering aloud about room rates and potentially staying the night as it was getting late and there was still a fair bit that the kids wanted to do. I raised my eyebrow at my husband as if to say,”Look into it?” He grinned. As far as we were concerned, it was a done deal. It seems silly to me that you would spend $ 140.00 for less than a 12 hour period. Frankly, the concept of spending more than $ 75.00 per night if all you are going to do is fall into bed dead exhausted, is silly to me.

My devious husband made a rather dubious excuse that could not easily be questioned, and more importantly…no one wanted to be around to find out if he was being truthful. We took of to Aunt Lil’s Porch for a quick bite to eat, leaving my grinning husband to explore overnight options. We settled in for yummy fare of chicken strips, fries and salad. Over a meal filled with giggles and plans for our next activity, I wondered aloud what was taking my husband so long to join us. Closer to the end of our meal, while I was ordering a meal for my husband…and who should sneak up behind me…but him. “It’s all looked after.” With a huge grin he sat down to enjoy his chili cheese fries.

Yet again, we trekked back to our room for a quick cup of tea and to make our plans. Rose saw the additional sleeping arrangements and went, “Where did THIS come from?” My husband explained that he had arranged for more sleep space so they could enjoy the rest of the night and we would drive Rose and her kids back into Thamesville in the morning. The kids cheered, Rose rolled her eyes, my husband and I grinned. You could see the look rolling over Rose’s face, “You two…what the hell am I gonna do with you?” We decided on mini-golf, and took to the links.

By 11:30pm, everyone was ready to hit the sack. Amidst the giggles and all out laughter, the lights went out….with “Good Night’s!” all the way around….my husband leaned over and said…